


Brick

by aggressive_pepsi



Series: The Way You Said I Love You prompts [1]
Category: SCP Foundation
Genre: Other, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, god this was so fucking sad to write, twysilu, warning for mentions of homophobic violence and drowning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-22 11:09:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15580635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aggressive_pepsi/pseuds/aggressive_pepsi
Summary: Draven Kondraki had thought that his relationship was a safely kept secret, that no one in his small little town knew where his heart belonged. That false sense of security was shattered by the throwing of a brick.





	Brick

Draven was sobbing, the sound of the glass shattering still ringing in his ears. His hands were shaking, and he tried to muffle his sounds, hoping that whoever threw the brick through the window had already gone on and left. His partner Jay- not their given name, but a nickname that stemmed from Draven’s journal writing that kept their given name a secret in case it had ever been stolen- held him close, the two hiding in the shadows. Jay held him close, letting him muffle his sobs in their chest, trying to angle their neck to see out the now broken window. 

 

Both Draven and Jay tried to hold out hope it wasn’t someone who knew about them. That it was just some drunken vandal who got into a fight with Draven’s father, or someone desperate looking to steal from the bakery. But it wasn’t. They both knew it wasn’t. Jay heard the familiar slurred speech yelling and cussing from the yard before stumbling off into the night, and they felt their stomach twist into knots. 

 

When the yelling started, Draven curled tighter to Jay, terrified of what was about to come. He had heard stories, about men drowned in rivers or beat within an inch of their lives, sometimes worse things, horrible things that he couldn’t even properly comprehend. And in his panic Draven believed all of them were about to happen to him at once, or worse, happen to Jay. It wasn’t until Jay started rocking gently back and forth that he came out of his fearful thoughts and back into the real world.

 

“It’s okay,” Jay breathed, just loud enough for Draven to hear over the sound of nighttime pouring in through the broken window. “It’s alright, he’s gone.”

 

Draven sniffled and sat up, just a little, not wanting to leave the safety of Jay’s comforting arms but needing to see for himself. Nothing out the window but the empty night. It felt far more safe than it actually was.He wanted to run away into it, run away with Jay and leave this life behind, go somewhere new and safer where no one could hurt them. But he just stayed put. Because in their arms, he was safe. They were both safe together.

 

“Okay,” Draven agreed, and nodded. He swallowed his fear down hard, and found his shaking hands moving towards Jay’s. “Thank you, god I’m so sorry for this…” He felt Jay lace their fingers in with his, comforting, just ever so slightly more steady.

 

“I’m so sorry,” he repeated, believing with all his heart that it was his fault. Jay was deeply closeted, moreso than Draven, but everyone had their suspicions with him. The way he walked, his voice, his penchant for softer language in his writing. It was all eyes on him, the day Jay came into his life. No one knew for sure; the two tried to be discrete. But people were watching. And Draven believed, he  _ knew  _ it was his fault.

 

Draven hadn’t noticed that he had started crying again until Jay carefully wiped away his tears with their thumb. They were whispering things to him, kind words that he didn’t fully register but brought comfort nonetheless. Draven felt like he was choking almost, like he was drowning, but holding onto Jay, he breathed slow and shaky. He hiccuped, and held on tightly.

 

“I love you,” he breathed, reaching up suddenly to cup James’s face. “I love you, and I’m so, so sorry.”

 

James smiled, and leaned forward, placing a gentle kiss on Draven’s lips. “Don’t be,” they replied, hardly loud enough to hear over the sudden sound of rushing water (had it started raining?). “I love you too. So much.” They pulled Draven close to their chest and ran a slightly unsteady hand through his hair. “I’m not going anywhere. It’s going to be okay.”

 

Draven smiled, in spite of the hateful glass that littered the floor. He took a slow deep breath and leaned back. 

 

“I’m not going anywhere eith--”

 

When Draven pulled back, Jay was gone. The room suddenly snapped cold and Draven started shaking again. He tried to call out to them, but his voice was muffled, hardly reaching his own ears. He tried to take a breath in to yell louder, but when he inhaled he choked, as if his lungs were filling with water.

 

The room broke apart into darkness, and Draven found himself kneeling on the floor of a wet void. He gripped his throat with both hands, terrified at what was happening around him. His lungs burned, and the world shifted harshly to the right, and he plummeted. 

 

The nothingness rushed past him, swirling and disorienting, and he scraped his face on the void’s floor to his side, ragged like the rocks on a riverbed. Draven thrashed and kicked and tried to swim through the nothingness, but he fell and fell and fell and fell, choking and shaking and  _ dying, he was dying,  _ and

 

Draven woke with a start, sitting bolt upright in his bed, shaking. 

 

Slowly, he looked to his left, hoping, praying that things would be fine. The bed was empty on that side. His throat seemed to close up on itself as he looked to his right, hoping that maybe, he’d see the light of the bathroom peeking underneath the door, hear the sound of the shower running on the other side. All that he saw was that he had knocked his water glass off the nightstand at some point in the night. Glass and water littered the floor.

 

Draven’s hands shook, and he slowly pulled the pillow at his side close to his chest. It had been two months and eleven days, and the pillow still smelled like them. He held it close, buried his face in it and sobbed, harder than he had since James disappeared. 

 

“I love you,” he choked, “please bun, come home…”


End file.
